Many times throughout the story the narrator mentions he feels like he is writing for another generation. He expresses that he wants his writing to be used to show what daily life is like during this time period. At the beginning he jokes about the readers not knowing about basic things like windows, cats or demons and jokes that the reader should get an encyclopedia. At first I read this with an “Ok Boomer” attitude and prepared to read a story I felt was going to be a fantastic version of Death of a Salesman (Middle aged man with desperate desire for wealth and social approval). However I soon realized this intro was a preparation for how we were supposed to read the story. In the end, we become that generation far down the line. Reading about this period with disgust and curiosity because we have genuinely no idea what an SG girl is, something so common to him he didn’t bother to explain what it was, like cats, windows or demons. Even the title furthers our belief that this is used as historical documentation. “Semplica Girl Diaries” places focus on something that is taken for granted in the story. That makes it feel if this was published with the express purpose of exploring this phenomenon, like titled that by a historical society. The author holds our attention by making us scour the text for more evidence and explanation of what is actually occurring. We are scouting out the unnatural and that’s what makes this story so riveting. Personally, I went back many times to read previous passages when I got more of an idea of what they were actually describing, making things I had kinda glossed over seem terrifying at second glance. This made the fist half of the story, I’ll admit, a little difficult to read because I felt as if I was missing something giant. However that makes the discovery and understanding of that giant thing even more rewarding and pleasing to read.
Desired Audience of Semplica Girl Diaries
Apr 8th, 2020 by Kaia
This interested me too. In fact, I actually looked up an interview online with the author and The New York Times to hear what he had to say about it. Saunders said he came up with the idea for this story from a dream. In the dream, he woke up and looked out his bedroom window and felt happy; like all he needed to do was provide for his family and be a good person. I thought this translated very well into his story.
I hadn’t thought about this being a letter for another generation. I think that so much has happened within the past month that makes this story seem more…believable? I really enjoyed this perspective and your perspective. There are so many layers and ways to look at this story.
When I was reading this, I was also interested in the narrator saying that he was writing for another generation. It made it more obvious to me that he was intentionally leaving out information about certain things, assuming the reader knew what he was talking about, a feat masterfully done by the author.